A Pilot Study Testing Aspects of the Integrated Marketing Communications Concept

This article describes a pilot study testing some aspects of the integrated marketing communications concept. The study is timely and relevant to the field because it employs an empirical approach to addressing the heated controversy over the validity of the integrated marketing communications concept. This controversy is based upon doubt about the theoretical basis for integrated marketing communications and the lack of empirical research in the field identified in the integrated marketing communications literature. In an effort to address the conceptual validity controversy directly, the study adopted the first use of an experimental approach in the integrated marketing communications field. The results of the experiment suggest that messages employing some of the key aspects of an integrated marketing communications strategy (i.e. messages with a common theme that are executed across multiple media in a visually consistent manner) may prompt a stronger attitude towards the brand level than the same messages employing a more traditional strategy (executions with less visual consistency), although other dependent measures were not similarly impacted upon. The study is limited in its scope, but is intended to stimulate more empirical research in the integrated marketing communications field.